1,981 views
Strange Places for Braille.
Braille can be extremely useful for the blind community. From reading and writing, to labeling and learning, braille is everywhere. But it can be found in some strange places as well.
Introduction
I like to believe that every blog post I have ever posted has deep meaning behind it. Back in reality I am mostly just screaming in to the void that is the Internet.
So in the spirit of blind awareness month I thought I would write something amazing about braille. But back to that reality check I mentioned above that just isn’t me. So instead here is a list of 5 weird places I have found braille.
Note I say weird. some of these aren’t so much weird just unexpected. Others are at least in my opinion. just fucking weird.
Inside a McDonalds Cup
At least until recent times McDonalds drink lids had braille on them. It was simple the words diet or other. This allowed some one who can read braille to know if the drink was diet or not.
As far as I can tell they have done away with these lids. Probably because what sort of crazy person orders a diet coke with the double quarter pounder with bacon. But I digress. The point is that braille could be found on the top of the lid.
Apparently what ever process made these lids had a floor in it because one day I received a drink lid that had the braille on it, The only problem was that the braille was on the wrong side. This meant to read it you had to remove the lid. Not exactly the most convenient method.
The thing I find strange is that I was with 3 friends at the time and my cup was the only one that got a broken lid. Was there just 1 freak lid or a hole batch. I guess we will never know.
I also did see cups on more than 1 occasion that the word other was miss spelled. the lowest dot of the o was missing. That was weird but something I saw a few times over the years.
Hands free Sink
You did read that right. The device designed so you don’t have to touch anything had braille on it.
Now this actually wouldn’t be that shocking if you stop and think about it for a second. Including braille perhaps where the tap would normally be saying something like. no tap, hold hands under spout, or something similar would be fine.
It would be if that is what they had done. Sadly dear readers I have to tell you they decided to write 2 words across the top of the tap which said simply. Warm Water.
I can’t say that this came as very much help to me. But I suppose the thought was there. and I guess had the water come out boiling hot or ice cold I could have gone up to some one in charge and let them know that the label on the sink was wrong or the sink was not functioning correctly.
It does seem like allot of work was put in to making sure a tap let you know it would spray warm water.
A Wine Bottle
Now I know my profile here on the Blog says a Drunken Kangaroo, so it might shock readers that I have actually never had Alcohol before.
That might be a lie but either way I had never seen a bottle of alcohol that had braille on it until my Brother bought a fancy bottle of French wine for my Mothers Birthday.
Keep in mind this wasn’t just a quick additional label that had the name of the wine in braille. The braille covered nearly the hole side of the bottle. Sadly it was in French so I couldn’t read a word of it. But it was pretty cool to see.
The only other time I have seen braille on alcohol was on the top of a Japanese beer can.
Drivers Ed Hand Book
Look I will be honest, I am all for making things accessible. However I think you might be taking the piss just a little bit by making the book that learner drivers get available in braille.
I was given this when I was 16 and I wasn’t really sure why. While knowing the road rules might be interesting and maybe helpful. It included a braille log book to log my hours of driving. In fucking braille!
All I know is when I showed up to take my test they didn’t think it was funny.
The Roof of a Train.
So here in Sydney on all train carriages you can find an emergency button should you get in distress. This button allows you to contact the conductor in the front of the train. The panel around this button does have braille on it to allow even a blind person to use it. The braille explains how to use the button and also the number of the carriage you are in.
The only thing that could make this more useful is if they put the button in the same place on all carriages but that is a debate for another time.
So anyway my point is I have seen braille on a train carriage before.
What is weird is I found a very strange panel on a train once. Well alright I didn’t find it. A friend saw it and showed it to me.
It was a panel that said this is a Smoke free train and the carriage number.
But for reasons I don’t know they mounted it in the roof of the train.
I don’t know if you have ever tried to read braille above your head on a moving train but it really isn’t that easy.
Final Thoughts
So that is my list of weird places I have found braille.
Do you think these are weird. What is the strangest place you have found braille?
Let me know in the comments below.
If you like what we do here on BSG you can share the posts on Twitter or Facebook. Each share helps out a lot. Don’t forget to click the like or dislike link at the top of the page as well. You can also support BSG on Patreon, there are multiple tiers and each one helps out a whole bunch, even if you only sign up for $1 it makes a difference.
Support BSG on Patreon